The Fox Report
Barry Fox’s technology column
Right to repair, Windows 11 and 1 Gig broadband
I
n the US, President Biden has
signed an Executive Order which
tells the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to pass Right to Repair
laws. These will force manufacturers
to let individuals and independent
repair companies try to fix broken
equipment rather than junk and replace. The intentions are admirable,
but there is a good chance of tears before bedtime as companies introduce
fanciful policies.
Witness the new ‘R for Repair’ tag
unveiled by Dutch Philips and Chinese
partner TP Vision at a recent online
press conference. I tried to re-watch
the live event and so be sure I had
been hearing and seeing correctly. But
it was gone, apparently for ever. My
memory and notes are clear, though.
Philips/TP Vision is now promising to
let owners of TV sets do DIY repairs.
Several journalists who were logged
into the event, including myself,
asked for more information on how
Joe Public or a handyman-for-hire
can get inside a modern TV set and
repair faults. The answer we got from
TP Vision managers was vague in the
extreme. ‘Obviously people will not
be able to replace components that
are glued together (sic). But they
will be able to do some basic things.
We are on a journey. We are taking it
step by step’.
We asked for examples of ‘basic
things’, but got none.
If anyone is capable of identifying
which microchip on the motherboard
of a TV has gone bad, and then desoldering and replacing it with a new
one obtained from who-knows-where,
it is most likely to be a PE reader. Less
tech-savvy owners are more likely to
try hitting it with a hammer or dolloping in some WD40… inevitably
finishing up with duct tape.
Another fine mess
Owners of Windows PCs have for
many months been receiving alerts
from Microsoft on Windows 11, the
free upgrade to Windows 10 which
(allegedly) makes a Windows PC look
and feel more like a Mac.
The upgrades have been staggered,
by location and hardware, and who
knows what other criteria, but all the
PCs I have direct contact with have
now been offered the chance to go
up to 11. Already, there are lessons
to be learned.
Because the 11 upgrade offer arrives with other updates, such as
security improvements, one owner
clicked ‘Yes’ to 11 without realising
1551V snap-fit vented and plain
miniature plastic enclosures
the significance. The download then
started, installed and prepared the PC
for a re-start. We could find no risk-free
way to undo the install. So, it duly
upgraded to Windows 11.
Three other machines all declined
to upgrade, blaming inadequate hardware. Downloading the free software
tool Health Check (which Microsoft
offers via its ordinary Update option)
revealed that each PC had adequate HD
space and RAM, but all the CPUs were
deemed inadequate even though they
met the overall speed requirements.
An Intel Pentium, Intel i7 and AMD
A10-6700 were all deemed unworthy
of Windows 11.
Whole rafts of relatively recent and
respected processors are also excluded.
So, it is likely that many readers –
and many businesses – will now find
their systems rejected for upgrade to
Windows 11.
There are two options. Try and
bypass the check by clean-installing
Windows 11, or simply stay with
Windows 10.
Don’t force Windows 11
I’d strongly advise against trying to
force an install. Although conspiracy
theorists will doubtless see the chip
rejection as part of some grand plan
!
w
ne
Learn more: hammfg.com/1551v
More than 5000 standard stocked enclosure designs
uksales<at>hammfg.com • 01256 812812
10
Practical Electronics | April | 2022
to sell new PCs, the length of the ‘No-to-11’ list makes
this highly implausible. Declined Windows 10 users are
more likely to buy into the Mac world or experiment with
Linux or Android Chromebooks, thereby achieving the
exact opposite of what Microsoft would want.
Everything points to the fact that Microsoft has blocked
routine upgrades from 10 to 11 because pre-launch testing
has thrown up serious crash and compatibility problems.
So be very wary of trying to over-ride the block.
Bugs, patches and keys
Also, it is unclear whether and how a forced upgrade to
11 will receive and cope with the essential bug fixes and
security patches to Windows 11 that are sure to follow.
As I found out recently when a routine Windows 10 update somehow de-activated the key for a new version of
Microsoft Office and replaced it with an expired key for
an old trial version, juggling keys in the Windows registry
requires a brave heart, strong nerve and fair knowledge of
DOS Command line working; as well as self-preservation
creation of registry back-ups and system restore points,
in case anything goes wrong.
Your starter for 10
The other, far better option is to stick with Windows 10.
Microsoft has assured that support with updates will
continue until October 2025. It’s likely that by then Microsoft will have patched and tweaked Windows 11 to
handle many of the currently vetoed processors; and in
the meantime, fixed any number of other bugs that firsttime users of Windows 11 will have suffered.
Just one example: The biggest criticism of ill-fated Windows 8 was that it removed the familiar Start menu, just
as Windows users had grown to ignore the absurdity of
hiding the Off or Shut Down option under a Start label.
A small industry grew out of third-party software such as
StartIsBack that cosmetically modified the unfriendly and
unfamiliar Windows 8 user interface so that it looked like
the familiar and friendly Windows 7 screen.
With a change of top management, Microsoft skipped
Windows 9 and launched Windows 10, with the friendly,
previously familiar Start menu re-instated.
A colleague whose PC recently updated from 10 to 11
immediately found that the Start Option to Stop had disappeared; in desperation they Shut Down by physically
pressing the ON/Off switch.
Start has not actually been removed. It has just been
hidden in the middle of a different-looking task bar. A
few easy-when-you-know-how mouse clicks on hidden
menu options will send the Start button back to where
users expect it to be.
A new generation of StartIsBack and similar third-party
software is already available for Windows 11.
What we-know-better-than-our-users mastermind inside
Microsoft thought it would be a good idea to repeat the
Windows 8 user alienation trick? Will an update to 11
now replace the Start button?
Giga-battle
We are now seeing the start of a new broadband battle,
with 1 Gig FTTP (1Gbps from fibre-to-the-premises) at the
heart of the sales pitch.
Doubtless spurred on by new entrants to the market, like
G Network in London, Virgin says it is now 1-Gig-capable
across its full network (subject to availability and network
Practical Electronics | April | 2022
This Windows 11-rejection message is frustrating for owners of
Windows 10 (or earlier) machines, but proceed very carefully if
you choose to ignore it and force an upgrade.
capacity, whatever that means) – see: www.virginmedia.
com/broadband/gigabit
Virgin is being upfront about the elephant in room –
only a few people with big houses and big needs actually
need 1 Gig capacity.
‘Whether you’ve got a full house, are into serious
gaming, or need to share some hefty files, 1 Gig1 Fibre
Broadband has enough speed to please even the busiest of households,’ says Virgin. ‘Big family? Gig1 Fibre
Broadband can power it all at the same time, without
breaking a sweat. Stream Ultra HD videos while downloading mammoth files, and your kids can still FaceTime
their mates. Plug in your console and game on. There’s
zero traffic management, ever, so your connection won’t
slow down even during peak times. Big house share? End
the battle for the bandwidth. Gig1 Fibre Broadband’s
got plenty of speed for everybody. You can all stream
in Ultra HD, game, host Zoom calls in different rooms,
download and upload university work, and more – all
at the same time.’
Which, when translated, means that FTTP will be expensive overkill for Mr or Ms Average Internet user.
Is it really that fast?
There is another elephant in the room. Although 1 Gig
may be coming into a house, speeds are likely to drop dramatically when the signal is sent round the house. Here’s
what a tech savvy friend reports from his first experience
with FTTP from G Network in London.
Speeds ‘down’ into the home, and ‘up’ out of the home
are, as is claimed, over 900 Mbps and nearly the aspirational 1 gigabit. But, and it’s a big but, this only holds
good if the broadband signal is fed direct from the fibre
router into a computer by a short Ethernet cable. As soon
as the broadband signal is sent round the home by a Wi-Fi
system, even one labelled ‘1Gb’, the real speed drops to
around 400Mbps.
My user friend writes: ‘Speeds of 900Mbs plus are nice
and something to brag about. But I enjoyed 100Mbs previously with Virgin and that was more than fast enough for
me, so (rhetorical question) who needs nearly a gigabit
residentially? Since they offered me a year free as ‘the
first person in the house to take up the offer’ who am I to
refuse? If it all goes sideways the Virgin cabling is still in
place, so reverting would be painless. Watch this space!’
11
